To the Editor:
The mob invasion of our national capitol on Jan. 6 had far reaching emotional impacts on many of us. Whether you may have toured this magnificent building through the visitor’s center, roamed its grounds or had occasion to do business within the Capitol complex, you could not help but react to this outrage.
My friend Don Fogg and I founded The Villages chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby in 2017. CCL is a national bipartisan organization committed to influencing members of Congress, in a respectful way, towards legislating policies that address climate change.
Don and I attended the biannual CCL conference and Lobby Day in Washington in 2018. We joined teams of CCL volunteers that visited multiple congressional offices that spoke to Members and staff about the present and future impacts of climate change and the necessity for action on reducing carbon emissions. This has been an ongoing conversation between members of our group and some of these offices – our next will be virtually in March. Throughout these encounters, we have been gratified and impressed with the access we have had to the halls of Congress and the hospitality we were afforded. These meetings are filled with the give and take important to the health of the democratic process.
So, it was with disgust and sadness that I watched the takeover of the Capitol by a mob intent on getting their way through violence against our elected representatives and their staffs. This illegal approach to governance is the opposite of what our founding fathers intended and of the process they enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. A particular horror was to realize that some of the very people we have met with and their associates were having to hunker down in barricaded rooms in fear for their lives. There was also a feeling of gratitude and relief that all were safe after the attack.
In the days following Jan. 6, some of our Villages CCL chapter members got together on a call to discuss how those events might influence our relationships with our Florida Members of Congress. Particularly those that took positions that may have encouraged the rioters. After some dialog, we concluded that we would not be deterred, we would continue to foster respectful relationships wherever and with whomever we thought might influence legislation necessary to mitigate carbon emissions. This is too important an issue to not work with all the elected officials we have rather than wait for ones we might wish for.
Amanda Gorman may have summed up the deep emotions many of us are feeling in the poem she recited at the Inauguration. One line particularly pertinent to our efforts is: “We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.”
Indeed!
Steve Hendrickson
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Chapter-The Villages